CIFF 2020: Sylvie’s Love
ciff 2020No other time in cinema captured the genuine beauty of love quite like the 1950's with film after film of star-crossed lovers falling for each other. Eugene Ashe's newest feature Sylvie’s Love embraces the love of this time crafting a film that both practically and thematically lives in the romances of the 1950's. Following a young woman named Sylvie (Tessa Thompson) and a young man named Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha) who meet years after first falling in love one summer only to find their feelings remain, Sylvie's Love is an undeniably charming romance that, for better or for worse, feels like one of those classic romances it is trying to become.
The immediate thing to jump out from the film is the visual style it takes on. With some of the year's best production and costume design, the film truly transports audiences into the 1950's with a slick visual pallet which helps the film stand out as one of the most inspired period pieces of the year so far. Even the way the film is shot by cinematographer Declan Quinn is unique and inspired to make the film feel like something that was made decades ago in the best of ways. There is something incredibly charming about this setting that helps the film stand out as unique to anything else to release in 2020 so far.
The performances are also equally sweet and genuine. Whilst Tessa Thompson has proven herself as an incredibly talented actor, with Sylvie’s Love being yet another strong outing on her filmography, Nnamdi Asomugha deserves just as much praise. In his biggest feature role to date, Asomugha — similarly to Thompson — gives a performance that feels authentic and thoughtful. Both of these actors have an incredible amount of chemistry and their romance feels natural and worthy. In this sense, the film accomplishes exactly what it seeks to. The film wants to be a classic love story with a unique stylistic edge — and it does exactly that. The romance is one audiences will want to root for and the style is some of the best period work in recent memory. With this said, the film in this identity has some natural flaws.
With so much of Sylvie’s Love capturing what has come before it, the film does, at points, feel as if it is simply going through the motions, not proving anything not already seen on screen. The story itself also failed to fully modernise itself in multiple ways; whilst films from the 1950's might get excused for toxic relationships due to society's generally toxic views on relationships and gender roles, things like Robert insisting he gets a kiss from Sylvie after walking her home as a friend doesn't hold up incredibly well as an idea from a 2020 release. Though these small choices are incredibly minor, they are felt, and there are times where it feels like the screenplay could have been a bit more conscious of these ideas.
Sylvie’s Love works quite well overall as a romantic expression. Capturing love in an engaging and unique way that feels inspired, the film is definitely a worthwhile viewing experience when it releases Amazon Prime Video this Christmas, but also won't be in the conversation for the best films of 2020. To achieve that level, the film needed to push its emotional questions more than it does and find an increased sense of urgency and cleanliness in the screenplay, which is simply lacking. It doesn't kill the film, but it does hold it back from achieving masterpiece status.
